2025-07-30
7 分钟The Economist. Hi, John Pridow here.
I host Checks and Balance, our podcast on US politics.
Welcome to Editors Picks.
Here's an article from the latest edition of The Economist handpicked by our team and read aloud.
I hope you enjoy it.
The saddest thing for Donald Trump, he said in an interview during his first term,
was that as president he was not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department.
He was also not supposed to be involved with the FBI.
That meant he could not be sure the government was going after Hillary Clinton.
I'm not supposed to be doing the kinds of things I would love to be doing,
he lamented, and I am very frustrated by it.
Now that he has been re-elected, Mr Trump has chosen to do the things he loves,
and he has set aside conventions that insulated the Department of Justice from White House pressure.
He is paying a price for erasing any expectation the department would operate independently,
as it did under Joe Biden in prosecuting prominent Democrats, including his son, Hunter.
Mr Trump's bandying of conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein helps account for the anger of his MAGA base at the nothing-to-see-here position of his top justice officials about records of the investigation into Epstein.
But because he has left no doubt who is in charge, that anger is directed at him too.
Why is Trump blowing up his base to protect child predators?
wondered Ann Coulter, a fierce advocate of the president in a column in mid-July.
It could have been worse for Mr. Trump.